Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein 3D (often shortened to Wolfenstein and Wolf3D) is a first-person shooter developed by id Software and originally published by Apogee Software. The game is set during World War II, as the player controls a captured American spy named B.J. Blazkowicz. The game was originally released on May 5, 1992 for MS-DOS, but later ported to multiple other systems. The general gameplay is that of a maze-like layout where the player ran around collecting guns, ammo and treasure. The game originally included only 3 episodes, but later was enhanced by 3 more prequel episodes, known as the Nocturnal Missions. The game is forbidden from sale in Germany due to cultural stigma against the use of swastikas in any fashion, though private play is permitted. Starting with the SNES port, later releases based on the DOS one had a different set of missions. These became part of what is known as the Original Encounter/1st Encounter/2nd Encounter/The Claw of Eisenfaust and is a prequel to the original game, however it's story is largely ambitious and changes from platform to platform. Background thumb|Early version of the main screen. Id Software created Wolfenstein 3D after pioneering a 3D game engine used in Hovertank 3D and Catacomb 3-D. The game was inspired by the older games Castle Wolfenstein and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein for the Commodore 64, Apple II, and DOS, which were stealth-based and controlled in a top-down view. However, both games have no other relation to the current Wolfenstein franchise. It is considered the grandfather of the First-Person Shooter genre as it all started from here. At an early stage the game was planned oneing closer in style to its two-dimensional predecessors: it originally incorporated stealth like the original Castle Wolfenstein; hiding bodies, reusing uniforms, and sneaking past guards without shooting. However, they soon realized that the brutal and rapid nature of it was better for ‘just a blasting-action game’ like its predecessors Catacombs 3D. After stealth was cut, Tom Hall struggled for the inclusion of secrets, reasoning that they would provide both a quick break from killing enemies and a little depth to the maze-like exploration.Interview with Tom Hall where he stated, ‘''Initially, it incorporated stealth, like the original Castle Wolfenstein; kill guard, drag body out of sight, take their uniform, sneak past guards without shooting, but we soon realized the brutal, fast nature of it was better for just a blasting-action game, like it’s sic little predecessor, Catacombs 3D. I’m glad we got pushwalls and thus secret areas in the game – you have to have that 10% thing you do apart from the main type of gameplay. If you hate seeing pots and pans hanging there turning this square room into 'kitchen', blame me. If you like pushwalls, you can give me some props for that. I really fought to have those.’ Storyline In ''Wolfenstein 3D, the player controls B.J. Blazkowicz, an American spy during World War II. The game is divided into two sections: the primary episodes 1, 2, and 3, and the prequel Nocturnal Missions, the episodes 4 through 6, which take place chronologically before the first three episodes. In the Mac/IIGS port these 6 episodes are collectively known as the 3rd Encounter. Episode 1: Escape from Castle Wolfenstein :Main article: Episode 1 In events leading up to the game, B.J. has been captured and taken to the lowest levels of Castle Wolfenstein's dungeons. The game starts with the protagonist having killed a Nazi guard that was keeping his cell after pretending to share information in return for medical attention, and takes a pistol and a knife from the corpse. He then has to proceed with fighting his way out of the dungeons and up through the castle. Finally he reaches the end of the castle and is forced to battle Hans Grösse, a Nazi enforcer in charge of castle protection. As B.J. had already killed his brother and sister in Spear of Destiny and the Nocturnal Missions, Hans is delighted to fight. However, like the others, he is no match for Blazkowicz, who successfully escapes from Wolfenstein. Episode 2: Operation Eisenfaust :Main article: Episode 2 Upon his escape, B.J. is tasked to thwart Operation Eisenfaust, a Nazi project spearheaded by one of their top scientists, Dr. Schabbs. Its purpose is to create an army of zombie mutant super soldiers, whom B.J. had already battled in the past (even destroying a stronger experimental version, an Übermutant). B.J. fights through Nazi forces, reaches Schabbs' lab and assassinates the mad doctor. Episode 3: Die, Fuhrer, Die! :Main article: Episode 3 Chronologically, this is the final mission of B.J. The brave agent moves on to the fuhrerbunker in Berlin to assassinate none other than Adolf Hitler himself and stop the War. After killing Hitler's elite forces and entering his floor, B.J. must overcome Hitler's apparent occult hellish powers, presented in the form of Fake Hitlers. In the final battle, Adolf Hitler appears in a mechanical suit of power armor with four chain guns. However, the Fuhrer failed to overcome B.J. and ended up being killed by him. Episode 4: Dark Secret :Main article: Episode 4 There are 3 prequel chapters named Nocturnal Missions in which B.J. Blazkowicz goes after General Fettgesicht, a Nazi general planning to use chemical weapons created by Nazi scientist Otto Giftmacher. This is chronologically the first episode of Wolfenstein 3D, where B.J. goes after the brain behind the chemical weapons - Otto Giftmacher. The episode concludes with Otto dead and B.J. heading to find out Fettgesicht's location. *In the Mac & 3DO ports, Trans Grosse is in charge. Episode 5: Trail of the Madman :Main article: Episode 5 After defeating Otto Giftmacher, B.J. needs to find out where the general is, and battles his way through the dungeons of Castle Erlangen, looking for the secret Nazi plans, and walks straight into an ambush by Gretel Grosse, a female Nazi enforcer and sister of Hans Grosse. After killing Gretel, B.J. captures important documents detailing General Fettgesicht's location. *In the Mac & 3DO ports, the Death Knight takes Gretel's place. Episode 6: Confrontation :Main article: Episode 6 B.J. is finally tasked with killing General Fettgesicht at the Offenbach military installation, ending his chemical warfare campaign. Despite heavy enemy presence, B.J. is able to locate the general and fights him to death, thus bringing an end to Nazi chemical program. *In the Mac & 3DO ports, both the Death Knight & Trans Grosse are fought. Speedrunning Alex0023 currently holds the world record to episode 1, coming in at 2 minutes and 12 seconds speedrun.com user CapnClever currently holds the world record for every other episode. Episode 2 is 4 minutes, 37 seconds Episode 3 is 4 minutes, 25 seconds Episode 4 is 5 minutes, 6 seconds Episode 5 is 4 minutes, 22 seconds Episode 6 is 9 minutes, 51 seconds Although the complete game was completed in 34 minutes, 2 seconds by another user known as Cyberdemon531. Somewhat controversially, No rules are defined on speedrun.com Alex0023's world record was done in the SNES port For every single world CapnClever did, he used DOSBox. Cyberdemon531 used GZDoom for her world record. Alex0023 played in the difficulty: Can I play Daddy CapnClever played in the difficulty: I Am Death Incarnate Cyberdemon531 played in the difficulty: Can I Play Daddy A speedrun war is currently going on between Alex0023, the world record holder, and FE2Speedrunner1, The former world record holder. Alex0023 only managed to get the world record because he realized that the SNES port was shorter and took advantage of it to beat FE2Speedrunner1 The same thing happened to FE2Speedrunner1, Before his world record was beaten. Ports :Main article: Ports of Wolfenstein 3D The game was originally released for MS-DOS and NeXTSTEP, but has since been released on multiple other systems such as the Macintosh, Apple IIGS, Acorn Archimedes, NEC PC-9801, SNES, Jaguar, and GBA. For the twentieth anniversary of the game, an HTML5 port was released on the ''Wolfenstein'' website. * The SNES port is actually an original game and campaign. It has an entirely different storyline that actually could make Return to Castle Wolfenstein and the 2009 Wolfenstein game part of an ongoing series (see The Claw of Eisenfaust transcript). ** On top of that, it's impossible to sneak up on enemies since they lack sprites for directions besides forwards. ** Dogs are replaced with rats as part of Nintendo's censorship policy. ** Also, Hitler is not exactly a boss in any of the missions. He is instead replaced by the Staatmeister (State Master in English), though the battle is still the same. ** Nazi Germany is called the "Master State." ** Castle Wolfenstein is also not the first castle in the SNES port, it is instead the last castle you attack as part of a six chapter mission series. * The Atari Jaguar port has new textures and enemy sprites. It contains the original story from the SNES version but is uncensored. ** The graphics for walls, enemies, and other objects do not become blocky or chunky at close range, a problem that the SNES & MS-DOS suffer from. ** The Jaguar version uses the Doom Chaingun and Rocket laucher sprites. The backpacks are also taken from Doom. * The iPhone port, when it first came out, stuck to the original PC artwork. After receiving complaints from users, the weapon graphics were upgraded to the higher-res Mac Family graphics. * In the Xbox 360 and PS3 ports, the Pac-Man ghosts were replaced with Fake Hitlers possibly due to copyright issues. However, Blinky is still present in E6L10. * The HTML5 port features the original 3 episodes. ** The player is allowed to start from any level they choose. ** The Nocturnal Missions (episodes 4-6) are not included. ** It features the same music as the original game, except it is played with higher quality instruments. Trivia *As Wolfenstein 3D was approaching its release, the artists showed everybody the manual that they had designed. But as Robert Prince read it, he noticed something disturbing: rather than using the term ‘Nazi’ for the enemies, they used ‘German.’ He said something to the effect that this demonym included many folks who opposed what the Nazis did, and they would dislike being the enemy in the game. Upon reflection, the designers came to agree with Prince's argument and altered the manual accordingly.Journal post by Robert Prince where he stated, ‘''When Wolfenstein 3D was getting close to release, the artists showed everyone the game manual they had designed. It was impressive work. I looked it over and read it. Something jumped out at me. Instead of using the word "Nazi" for the enemy, they had used the word "German." I said something to the effect that "German" included many people that did not support what the Nazis did, so those German people would not like being the enemy in the game. They got what I was saying and changed the term. They were willing to listen to what I had to say though it was not about music/sound effects.’ *The GOG and Steam release of Wolfenstein includes the "Activision" branded version of the game, unlike in the Xbox 360 and PS3 releases, released by Bethesda. *Wolfenstein 3d is known to be the first ever FPS, although it's not. This probably happened because of it's popularity compared to other shooters. *The world record holder for Escape From Wolfenstein's single speedrun is that world record run! See also *Wolfenstein 3D Super Upgrades *Spear of Destiny'' *''Spear of Destiny'' mission packs **Return to Danger **Ultimate Challenge *''Return to Castle Wolfenstein'' *''Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory'' *''Wolfenstein'' (2009) *''Wolfenstein: The New Order'' *Walkthroughs External links *[http://www.idsoftware.com/games/wolfenstein/wolf3d/ Official Wolfenstein 3D page] by id Software *[http://www.3drealms.com/wolf3d/index.html Official Wolfenstein 3D page] by 3D Realms (Apogee Software) *''Wolfenstein 3D'' at Bethesda Software *Wikipedia *TVTropes *Mobygames *MODDB *Downloads from GameFront *PURCHASE from STEAM *Community forum *Community website *Community Discord *Video Walkthrough by Lingyan203 *Video Walkthrough by kraileth *TRAV'S FAVORITE SHOOTERS References de:Wolfenstein 3D es:Wolfenstein 3D ko:울펜슈타인 3D nl:Wolfenstein 3D pl:Wolfenstein 3D ru:Wolfenstein 3D zh:德軍總部3D Category:Wolfenstein series Category:Wolfenstein 3D Category:Wolfenstein 3D levels Category:Games Category:Wolfenstein 3D versions and ports Category:Wolfenstein 3D enemies Category:Wolfenstein 3D weapons Category:Wolfenstein 3D maps